At risk youth in Dallas County have a resource available to them they may not know about.

April Wyett, Career Planner for Children and Families of Iowa, heads up the Connect 2 Careers program in Dallas County. She says the program, which started about five years ago, is continuing to expand and help more and more people in the area. The program is funded federally through the Department of Labor and guided by the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. It focuses on helping youth to overcome employment barriers.

Wyett works with people ages 14-24, and they include high school dropouts, pregnant teens or single mothers, those in the penal system, immigrants, and individuals with disabilities. Most of the youth she deals with have at least some idea what they want to do with their lives, but don’t know how to get there.

“So that’s where we come in. And we help them by setting the stepping-stones on their path to their goals. So whether it’s obtaining their high school diploma, or equivalency, and obtaining employment. And then after that, if they’re interested in post-secondary education such as college or trade schools, things like that, that’s where we help them.”

Wyett adds, the help they provide is sometimes as simple as helping them with their college financial paperwork, or connecting them with the food assistance website. The program’s ultimate goal is to help youth become more self-sufficient. To hear more about Connect 2 Careers, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.